Christianity, and, at the other end of the scale, some training was necessary ...
famous essay, the Ad Adolescentes de Legendis Libris, or, to use the more.
THE FUNCTION OF EDUCATION ACCORDING TO CHRISTIAN WRITERS OF THE LATTER PART OF THE FOURTH CENTURY A.D. D. B. Saddington (University of the Witwatersrand) In the second half of the fourth century A.D. several of the Church Fathers gave considerable attention to the problems of education. At this time Christians were being forced to reconsider their attitude to education both for secular and religious purposes. More and more posts in the highest levels of the imperial bureaucracy were being occupied by Christians who would have had to have been educated in the traditional schools. 1 Should the Christian church accept this educational .system as it stood or modify it? Even within the church itself a place had to be found for learning and teaching. Apologists for the faith had to be well versed in the learning of their opponents who were at the head of a powerful pagan reaction against Christianity, and, at the other end of the scale, some training was necessary for those who preached and instructed the ordinary congregations. The Christian attitude to education was intimately linked to the suspicion and mistrust with which the whole of ancient culture was regarded. 2 There were still extremists3 who, like certain elements among the pagan philosophers, wished to reject the traditional educational system altogether. But on the whole considerable agreement had been reached by the middle of the fourth century that much could be salvaged for Christian use. 4 The views of
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1. On education in the fourth century A.D. cf. Rauschen, G. R.: Das griechischramische Schulwesen zur Zeit des ausgehenden Heidentums, Bonn 1901, and, for the West, Haarhoff, T. J. : Schools of Gaul-A Study of Pagan and Christian Education in the last Century of the Western Empire, Oxford 1920, reprinted Witwatersrand University Press, 1958. The most recent account in English is Marrou, H.-I.: A History of Education in Antiquity, tr. by Lamb, G., London 1956. 2. On Christianity and classical culture, cf. Cochrane, C. N.: Christianity and Classical Culture. A Study of Thought and Action from Augustus to Augustine, Oxford 1940, repr. 1957. For a detailed study of classical influences on certain Christian writers, cf. Hagendahl, H.: Latin Fathers and the Classics. A Study of the Apologists, Jerome and other Christian Writers (Goteborgs Universitets Arsskrift, LXIV, 2 = Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensia, VI), Gothenburg 1958 . 3. Bardy, G.: L'Eglise et l'Enseignement au IVe Siecle, in Revue des Sciences Religieuses XIV (1934) 539. For pagan rejections of the eyKuKA.to~ nat8&ia cf. Mette, H. J.: ErKYKAIOE IIAI.iEIA, in Gymnasium LXVII (1960) 304; Kuhnert, F.: Allgemeinbildung und Fachbildung in der Antike (Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Schriften der Sektion fiir Altertumswissenschaft, 30) Berlin 1961, 99 ff. 4. Cf. Fuchs, H. : R.A.C. V (1962) 390 ff.; Mras, K.: Christentum und heidnische Wissenschaft, in Wiener Studien LXIX (1956) 206 ff. For Christian education in general in the fourth century, cf. Bardy, l.c. n. 3 (the whole article is contained in XIV, 525 ff.; XV (1935) I ff.); Millar, L. : Christian Education in the First Four Centuries, London
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r four prominent figures will be discussed in some detail, before an attempt is made to assess the direction which Christian thought was taking in redefining · the functions of education. St. Basil5 the Great (c. 330-379), the son of a famous professor of rhetoric, received a full classical education, the final stages of which he completed under the professors at Athens. He taught rhetoric himself for a time, but later became a monk and then bishop of Cappadocian Caesarea (Kayseri). Like the other Cappadocian fathers, his great friend Gregory of Nazianzus (Nenizt) and his own brother, Gregory of Nyssa (a small place some eighty miles west of Caesarea), he was not hostile to classical learning and gave it a place in the education of Christians. 6 Those passages in his works which condemn pagan literature generally occur in contexts where he wishes to emphasize some particular point of Christian behaviour or doctrine. Thus he deplores the time he spent on classical learning in his youth because he wishes to plead for a better use of time. 7 His considered view on the correct use of pagan literature is set out in his famous essay, the Ad Adolescentes de Legendis Libris, or, to use the more revealing Greek title, the Ilpos wus N8ous oncos av E/; 'EA.A.TJVtK&v rocp8A.otvro A.6ycov. It is necessary to recall the circumstances under which it was written to understand its purpose fully. Basil wrote it in his old age for his nephews, 8 who were presumably being brought up in a devout Christian atmosphere. They were currently receiving a classical education, probably completing their study of ypaJ.LJ.LU'ttKTJ and proceeding to pTJ1:0ptKTJ. 9 His remarks, then, were intended to apply to Christians at a specific stage of their intellectual development, and were not meant to be taken generally. The object of the treatise was to show these young Christians how they could benefit from the study of pagan authors. In the first place, they had to devote themselves to the good of their souls.10 Basil was not insensitive to the aesthetic appeal of the classics: indeed he felt that this might constitute a danger and influence his nephews to adopt pagan standards of behaviour.
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1946; Jaeger, W.: Early Christianity and Greek Paideia, Harvard University Press, 1962. 5. Bardy, G . : R.A.C. II (1950) 1261 ff. 6. For education according to the Cappadocian Fathers, cf. Weiss, K .: Die Erziehungslehre der drei Kappadozier (Strassburger theologische Studien V, 3-4), Freiburg im Breisgau 1903. 7. His time was wasted 1:ij nvaA.iJIJIEt 1:illv J.lU9T]J.lthrov 1:i'jt; 1rapu 1:ou 0eou J.lCOpaveeicrT]t; croq>iat; (Ep. 223, 2).
8. Ado!. 1, 1-2 9. The statement that they were consorting with 1:oit; eA.A.oyfJ.lott; 1:illv 1taA.atillv nvlipillv, lit' ruv Ka1:aA.eA.oi1tacrt A.6yrov (1, 4), implies that they were reading the famous authors who were studied under the ypaJ.lJ.lUnK6t;. Another indication that Basil is thinking of a specific stage in their development is given in 7, 7, where he says of examples of pagan upe1:i(: 1tOA.A.ou li/;toV e{vat J.ltJ.lftcracr9at 'tOUt; 'tT]AtKOI'l'tOUt; Q>T]J.ll-this would be unnecessary for older Christians. Cf. 2, 3; and 2, 8, quoted below, n. 14. 10. 9, 1.
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This they are to avoid at all costs, assimilating only what was advantageous: ocrov sm:i xpi]crtJ..lov ... oEX,OJ..l8vou~, do8vat ,;{ XPTJ Kai naptodv.U In this context, 'useful' means 'useful for Christian purposes'. The ultimate criterion is the other life. Basil drew a sharp distinction between teaching based on the Bible, and that deriving from 'tTJV 96pa9ev croV l.epffiv Kat (moppij'tWV i'mUKOUO"O!lE9a 1tULOEU!lU'tffiV (Ado!. 2, 8). I5. IO, I; for the metaphor, cf. Plato, Phaedo 69b; Rep. 365c. I6. Bas. Ado!. 5, I. 17. Millar, o.c. n. 4, 75. I8. Giet, o.c. n. 11, 229; Marrou, o.c. n. I, 322 f.
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main burden of education as the duty of the parents, and quotes St. Paul to that effect.l 9 This part of education is to be a gradual process, a training in godliness. 20 The need for actual lessons in goodness is stressed : one cannot become like God without proper teaching: oJ.Loicocrt~ os, ouK livw yvrom::co~· Tj o& yv&cn~, ouK EK'tO~ otoaywi'tcov. 21 Priests and bishops were to assist the parents in this task, since they were the children's second fathers. That much more than factual instruction in dogma was needed is shown by the phrase 'tTJV oui 'tfj~ sucm~cia~ J.L6pt8i]crcrot; acceptable. (2) 59,3: Jlovov ~>UEPYETT)V (H)f'~>upEn)v' (LS)j'K'!icrn)v' (C) rcVEUJ.l(hrov Kai 8cov rcU~>pyE'!TJV is given in the Hierosolymitanus (or Constantinopolitanus) manuscript; the meaning 'finder' appears in the Latin and Syriac versions, and the meaning 'creator' in the Coptic translations. · Clement's prayer is not only a request for divine mercy, but also a final attempt to bring the parishioners who were responsible for the dissension to repentance. With this aim several aspects of God's unique omnipotence are mentioned. In the corrupt colon Clement wants to point out that both the human mind and the body are in God's hand. 12 The colon is, like several preceding ones, constructed antithetically. The contrast is based on the words rcVEDJ.lU'!rov) (crapK6t;. From this we may infer that the corruptela must represent a parallel term for 8c6v. Both the reading EU~>pyE'!TJV (H) and the translation 'finder' (LS) form phrases which are not very satisfactory parallels for 8~>ov rcucrTJt; crapK6t;. Taking JlOVOV with either EuEpyE'!TJV or 'finder' would be unnecessary and pointless, whereas this word is fully justified when taken together with a synonym of 8c6v, so as to express, in a different form, the idea contained in rc
